Gods and Heroes: Stieg Hedlund Interview @ Gamespot

GameSpot: We've seen that Gods & Heroes will have elaborate combat animations that will let players leap onto their enemies and choke them to death. How will you execute these attacks in the game? Will they automatically happen if you attack someone, or do you have to perform a specific action to trigger them?

Stieg Hedlund: We specifically set out to create combat that was as immersive as it was exciting. Just creating animations and letting them play out on their own would make combat lose both its immersion and the excitement after the first few fights, so we built the system so players will be able execute various attacks that not only have high-payoff animations, but also all have different game effects that go along with them and have different strategic uses. Non-player characters (NPCs) will become aggressive against player characters, naturally, and in turn use their various attacks when their artificial intelligence thinks it's appropriate or when they have the energy to do so.